Harlequin Girls
by your lips rewrite history
Summary: She's not a reckless girl, really, but when Puck shows up in the middle of the night offering her an escape she can't think of any reason to say no.' Rachel and Puck run away together.
1. Part I

**A/N: Okay, so this is random and weird and (eventually) dark and probably not the most in character story in the world, but I kind of like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.**

**Prologue  
**

Rachel Berry is a light sleeper. She wakes up at the lightest sounds of alarm clocks or footsteps. So when there's a tap on her window at two in the morning the night after Sectionals, she immediately shoots out of her bed.

She's about to go back to sleep when she hears it again. _Tap, tap. _She picks up one of her sharper dance trophies and slowly walks over to her window, fully expecting some sort of rapist to be waiting for her.

What she doesn't expect is Noah Puckerman sitting on the tree outside her window. She almost screams when she see him, but stops herself in order to not wake up her dads. His eyes are bloodshot, and he looks as if he hasn't got a full night of sleep in years. She feels so sorry for him that she forgets she's on Finn's side. She quietly eased her window open.

"Cute eye mask," he smirks as he climbs inside her bedroom. She self-consciously fingers the gold star covered eye mask that has her name embroidered on it. It was a present from her dads for her birthday last year.

"Noah," she finally breathes, "What are you doing here?"

He stares at her for what seems like ages. "Come with me," he says, without technically answering. He runs his hand through his mohawk. "Let's get out of Lima. It's cancerous here. We'll go to New York. Just run away from it all."

She looks at him like he's crazy (she thinks he might be), "You can't be serious, Noah. We can't just leave."

"Why not?" he begs, "You could be on Broadway. You're probably loads more talented than anyone there." She thinks that this is true, but it's still a terrible idea.

Something clicks, and Rachel asks, "Noah, did something happen with Quinn? Or Finn?"

Puck punches her wall and turns to her, "This isn't about them. This is about you and me and how we're to good for this fucking town."

She stares at the broken boy in front of her. He's more vulnerable than she's ever seen him. She grabs his hand (that's now bleeding a little bit) and in a moment of insanity says, "Okay."

--------

It takes her forty-five minutes to pack all of the things she thinks she'll need into Puck's truck. She write a letter to her dads, telling them she needs to get out of Lima and that she still loves them. She doesn't tell them where she's going.

Noah helps her into his truck. She gives the house she grew up in a final look as he pulls out of the driveway.

They drive in silence for a while, passing streetlights and finally seeing the "You Are Now Leaving Lima, OH" sign. Rachel tries to sleep on numerous occasions in the first hour. She can't.

Eventually she begins fiddling with the radio (her cds are all in the back). She stops when she comes to a station with fairly decent music. She stares out the window for five minutes until a familiar song comes on.

She laughed out loud as _Sweet Caroline _begins playing. Noah looks at her and smiles for the first time since he knocked on her window. They both hum along quietly. The song ends, and Rachel is trying to decide what to say to him before the awkwardness returns.

All of her questions involve why they left (he doesn't want to talk about it), where there going to live or what they'll do for food (she doesn't want to stress him out), or what his favorite musical is (Kurt keeps telling her that's not socially acceptable conversation for most people).

She doesn't have to come up with a question because he's the one who breaks the silence, "We need a plan."

"What are you talking about?" she questions, confused.

"For New York, for running away, I can't go back there." he stumbles over his words, and she's suddenly overtaken with anger. He didn't have a plan! She glared at him, wishing for the first time that night that she didn't climb out the window with Noah Puckerman.

"I thought you had a plan," she spit out venomously. He seems surprised by her sudden fury.

"I needed to get out of there. I just… I just had to go." He seems distressed by whatever happened earlier in the night and she opens her mouth to ask what happened but closes it because for the first time in Rachel Berry's life she decides to mind her own business.

"Okay," her voice softens, "We need a plan then." They spend the next hour deciding on what to do. They'll stop at an ATM in Cleveland (so no one can track them down) and withdraw $20,000 on Rachel's emergency ATM card (she thinks this qualifies as an emergency). They'll get the cheapest apartment they can find when they get to New York. They'll attempt and get jobs as soon as possible. Rachel thinks they might need to come up with aliases (this idea manages to get Puck excited; he spends at least ten minutes trying to come up with the dirtiest fake names he can).

--------

When the sun rises, Rachel starts to worry a bit. "My dads have probably seen have seen my note by now. They probably called the cops. Somebody's going to be looking for your car."

Puck rolls his eyes, "Berry, chill. We won't get caught."

She frowns at him. "My name is Rachel. And how can you know we won't get caught? You should hav…"

He cuts her off, "We won't get caught because I am badass, and cops don't arrest badasses."

Rachel huff in annoyance, "Your badass? What kind of answer is that? And for the record, I'm sure the cops have arrested far more badass people than you." She doesn't know how he can be so calm. He was the one freaking out a couple hours ago.

He scoffs at her implication that there were more badass people than him. "Well, what do you suggest we do?" He immediately regrets asking because he knows she'll launch into a 20-minute speech about how they should sell the truck (no way in hell) and buy two bus tickets.

This is actually what she does do, and Puck ignores her during the entire thing.

--------

He does sell his truck and they do get bus tickets (not because he a pussy or anything; the idea just made sense). They have the money now, and it finally hits Rachel that they're actually doing this. They're sitting on the greyhound watching the streets go past.

Rachel stares at him (he's gone back to quiet Noah), and breaks her vow not to get involved in his business. "Do you want top talk about it?" she asks.

He glances at her, "Talk about what?"

She could completely change the subject and avoid the inevitable drama that'll come up. She could ask if he wanted to talk about his favorite Jewish tradition or if he was ever planning on shaving that stupid mohawk. She could, but she doesn't.

"You know. Whatever made you angry enough to leave your family and your entire life. Was it Quinn? Or Finn? What happened?" She knows the moment she says this that she made a mistake. His eyes become guarded again; he glares at her.

"What about you? Why'd you agree to leave? Did you throw yourself at the golden boy, Finn, and get rejected because you aren't pretty enough? You'd think you would be used to that by now, though."

There's a lump in her throat, but she forces herself not to cry (she's shed too many tears for Noah Puckerman). "You know, I'm starting to think Quinn made the right decision. I wouldn't admit that I was carrying your kid either."

Her words sting like hell. He scowls at her, "Well, it's a good thing I wouldn't ever fuck you." He gets up and walks away. He takes a seat next to the nearest cougar.

--------

Puck doesn't apologize. Ever. So he reasons with himself that the only reason he's saying sorry to Berry is because she has the money, and it would suck to be alone and broke in New York. He sits down next to her.

She keeps her eyes on her book (_Pride and Prejudice_, really could she be more of a girl?). He clears his throat, but she still won't look at him. "Berry, err I mean Rachel, look I don't say sorry, but I said some shit, and I'm… I'm… I'm sorry, okay? I am sorry."

She still hasn't looked up, but he can see her smiling (because he damn charming). "That wasn't that hard, was it?" she smirks.

"Yes it was," he says seriously. She rolls her eyes playfully, and he thinks that maybe this friendship or whatever they have might actually work out.


	2. Part II

**A/N: Okay so warning the end of this chapter get pretty dark and heavy. And I grossly overuse the word and at the end. Also, thank you so much for all of the reviews.**

The first thing he does in New York is shave the mohawk. Technically she shaves it for him, in a gas station bathroom near the bus stop. She says something about it'll be easier to find him if he doesn't have the Mohawk (which is ridiculous because unlike Lima in New York he isn't the only person with a mohawk); he just wants a fresh start.

The second thing they do is go apartment hunting. Rachel is predictably OCD about it. They sit on a bench with all of there stuff and circle every place that Rachel thinks might work. They even have a color-coded system.

"Maybe I should go alone. We can't exactly drag all of our stuff along everywhere. You could sit with the stuff so it doesn't get stolen, and I'll come back when I find someplace suitable for us to live." Rachel rambles.

Puck scoffs, "No way in hell am I letting you look for an apartment alone. On the off chance you don't get raped or mugged, you'll pick out some girly ass apartment that a stud like me can't be seen in."

Rachel rolls her eyes, "First of all I've had taekwondo training since I was seven, so I would not be raped. Second of all if you're so adamant we go together, what do you think we should do with our stuff?"

He wasn't really sure. Rachel brought almost every thing she owned, and he didn't really want to carry her 29 pairs of shoes around New York City. After trying to come up with an idea for a good five minutes he decides to just go along with her original idea.

And the apartment she picks out doesn't completely make him want to puke.

-------

They're unpacking their things (or rather he's unpacking all of her shit while she yells at him to be more careful) when Puck realizes it. The apartment is one room. He is going to have to share the Murphy-bed with Rachel "batshit-crazy" Berry. She's going to murder him in his sleep.

"Um, Berry," he says casually. She glances up from where she's arranging all of her facial products in their itty-bitty bathroom. "Uh," he feels incredibly awkward, "What are going to do about, you know, like sleeping arrangements because, uh, this apartment only has, like, one bed."

She gasps and drops her vanilla body lotion. Clearly this hadn't occurred to her either. He can see the wheels turning in her head. She finally states mater-a-factly, "We can just buy an air mattress. You can sleep on it in the kitchen… area, the kitchen area." She needs to get used to living in one room.

He scoffs, "Oh and what makes you think that I am going to sleep on the air mattress? Why wont you?"

Rachel looks at him, affronted, "Have you ever heard of being chivalrous? Besides a future starlet like myself can't run the risks of the back problems sleeping on an air mattress can cause!"

"Oh, and I can handle back problems?" Puck raises an eyebrow.

Rachel looks at him coyly, "Well, I was under the impression you were badass…"

He nods at her seriously, "I am badass." The fact that he is badass is not much of a consalation prize when he finds himself sleeping on an air mattress in the kitchen that night.

-------

The next day is spent trying to get their fake identities together. Rachel immediately shoots down Puck's top three names (Neil Anblowme, Justin Yermouth, and Mike Oxsbig). She then threatens to stab him when he suggests she goes by Anita Dickinme.

"Celine, Barbra, Celine, Barbra," Rachel mutters under her breath. She sighs and turns to Puck, "I can't decide which one do you like better: Celine or Barbra?"

Puck snorts. After Rachel glares at him, he grins, "Wait, you're serious?"

Rachel lets out a shriek that he's sure only dogs can hear and says, "Of course I'm serious." When he bursts into another round of laughter, she huffs in annoyance, "If you're such a genius then what do you suggest for a name?" He smirks at her and raises his eyebrow. "…Preferably something that doesn't have the word dick in it."

He holds up his hands in mock innocence. He ponders for a second, looking around the room for inspiration. He almost suggest Drizzle before he remembers that they left Quinn and Finn behind in Lima for a reason. He grins as the name comes to him, "What about Caroline?"

She's blushing when she looks down, but she's smiling too. "Yeah, I think that'll work." She wonders how someone who can be such a jackass can be incredibly sweet sometimes too. She figures this is what life's like with Noah Puckerman; when it's bad it absolutely awful, but when it's good she feels like she can fly.

She bites her lower lip. "I still need a last name," she says.

He glances at the copy of _Schindler's List _that had yet to be unpacked (he brought so he could feel connected to his Jewish roots). "Hitler," he says decisively, "You have a lot in common with the guy." That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but he figures she'd totally kill a shitload of people to get a Grammy or a Tony or an Oscar.

"Noah!" she sounds scandalized, "You do realize that as a Jew I find that incredibly offensive." He likes how her face gets all red when she's angry.

He shrugs, "Well, you know, that'll make it harder for them to track us down." She finally agrees. After all, who is she to argue with that logic.

-------

After they have their aliases figured out (he's John Smith because it sounds badass and she wouldn't let him do anything remotely dirty), Puck takes care of getting the fake birth certificates and IDs (he knows a guy that knows a guy).

Rachel insists that they immediately set out looking for jobs. She has a schedule that includes every Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway audition from now until next year. He sets his sights lower.

He contemplates with becoming a stripper just to get a reaction out of her (besides who wouldn't want to see his guns), but he doesn't know anything about male strippers seeing as he's not gay. He applies for work at a small deli outside Time Square. He knows he's going to get the job because the woman who owns the place is a Jewish cougar.

Puck gets the job (or rather 'John Smith' does), but Rachel goes from audition to audition not catching a break. He might strangle her if he has to hear about how unfair the audition process is again.

They're sitting in their apartment sipping wine (Caroline and John are respectively twenty-two) after a particularly hard audition when she asks softly, "Remember the night we left?"

He looks up at her from where he's sitting on his air mattress. They had seemed to have an unspoken agreement not to speak of Lima or that night. Regardless he nods, "How could I forget?"

She leans against the counter, "That night, before you came, I was at a Glee party at Artie's." She looks at him, "You weren't invited because Kurt wanted Finn to come, and that wouldn't happen if you or Quinn were there."

He isn't sure where she's going with this so he lets her continue. "Everybody was high off the Sectionals win. Matt had scored a keg, and everyone was drinking and having fun. And I,"

She pauses and when he looks at her she doesn't look confident, driven, sixteen-year-old Rachel Berry. She just looks sad. "And I was being accepted. Everyone was telling me how good I did on my solo. It was like having friends."

She sighs deeply, "Brittany and Santana were making out in a corner, and Matt was flirting with Mercedes, and Mike was attempting to teach Kurt how to "Pop-Lock it". Tina and Artie were making up, and it was one of those parties where everything was peaceful and fun. And I was talking to Finn."

It's so quiet in their apartment. Her voice is the only sound. Outside, somewhere far away, you could vaguely hear people partying, but in their apartment everything was still. "He kissed me, and I remember thinking this is what high school should be like, with friends and parties and cute boys that kiss you under the stars."

"Eventually it got late, and everybody began to disperse. Finn left first. He promised that he would call me the next day. Matt and Mike left shortly after him. Brittany and Santana had disappeared a while back. My dads had dropped me off, so Kurt and Mercedes offered me a ride."

She closed her eyes, "And God Puck, they were so drunk. They shouldn't have been driving, but I didn't want to say anything because they were being my friends."

She's crying now. Tears race down her face and her voice trembles, "So we got in Kurt's car, and we started driving. I was in the back; Mercedes had shotgun. There was a man. Or a woman. A person riding their bike. And we should have seen them, but Lady Gaga was on the radio. Kurt was singing about his _Poker Face_, and then we hit something. Someone. And you've seen Kurt's car. They didn't have a chance"

"Kurt and Mercedes were freaking. Mercedes was convincing herself that it must have been a moose or something. God! A moose in Ohio. And Kurt was just so drunk. So fucking drunk. And I'll I could think about was how if I got arrested I wouldn't get into Julliard. So we drove away. And then you knocked on my window, Noah. And you offered me an escape, a way to run away from what I did. So I took it."

She's shaking now, and he walks over to her. He put his arm around her as she collapses on the kitchen floor and kisses her temple. He strokes her hair and whispers things like it'll be okay in her ear. When she calms down a little, he turns to her, "Quinn fell."

Her eyes are red and puffy, "Huh?"

"That night, when you were at the party, I was with Quinn. She was throwing herself a pity party at my house, and I was using it as an excuse to prove that I'd be a good dad. She was getting fed up with it, so she got up to leave. She was walking up the stairs of my basement, and I tried to stop her. She just blew up at me. She started screaming about how Finn would have been a better father and how it was my fault her life sucked and a whole bunch of other shit."

"And I just snapped. I started yelling back, telling her she was a bitch. She pushed me, really hard. I stumbled down a couple step, but she must have put too much weight into it or something because she fell. She fell down the stairs and landed on her stomach. And then, well, you should have seen all the blood. I rushed to help her, but there was so much blood. Blood everywhere, it was so red. I had it all over my hands. I had my baby's blood all over my hands in more ways then one. Do you know how screwed up that is?"

He's still scary calm and quiet, "Do you realize how fucking screwed up that is? I drove her to the hospital, but it was too late. She lost the baby. It's my fault. I couldn't breathe in there so I left. I went to you place."

Her eyes are big and sad, and she says softly, "Oh God, Noah." This time she holds him as he cries for the first time since that night.

-------

They don't talk about it in the morning.


	3. Part III

**A/N: You would think after how long this took me write it would either be amazing or really long. This is neither. I don't think this story we'll be _that _much longer. Maybe another three chapters...  
**

**Oh, and I'm looking for a beta so if anyone's interested just PM me. Thanks again for the reviews; you all are amazing.**

It's been four weeks. They're living off of snack cakes and Easy Mac, and their landlord keeps threatening to turn off their power. She hasn't taken a hot shower in a month, and he's had to give up dip because it costs too much. He works double shifts as much as his mom used to, and she considering getting a real job. He won't let her though. He's convinced that if she gives up on Broadway then he took her away from her cozy suburban life for nothing (not for nothing but they still don't talk about that).

They're sitting at the apartment when it happens. Their shared piece-of-crap cell phone rings. It's a rare occurrence, so they both look at it like they don't know what it's doing for the longest time. Finally Puck picks it up. "Sup," he yawns into the phone.

There's a beat on the other end, and he thinks for a second that Lima had found them. Then a confused voice speaks, "Um, is this Caroline Hitler's phone?"

"Uh, yeah. On sec." Puck says confused as to why some guy that sounds like a douche is calling Rachel. "Ra- Caroline! Phone!" (he still isn't completely used to the names yet) he yells. Rachel walks towards him muttering something about it being completely absurd and unnecessary for him to yell when she's literally five feet away.

She answers the phone professionally, "Caroline Hitler." He thinks it's weird hearing that voice being used to say something other that Rachel Berry. She nods (not that they can see her) and says a few yeses. Suddenly her face lights up.

She hangs up the phone (still smiling), and flings herself on him. When she's done hugging him, she pulls away breathlessly, "I got a callback." He hugs her, spins her around, and promises her a night on the town.

They end up staying in because as it is Rachel hasn't gotten the job yet and they can't afford to go out. But they do end up springing for Cosmic Brownies instead of Hohos and buying wine that isn't in a box.

-----

She gets a supporting role in a small Off-Broadway production; she loves every second of it. It's a small role, but she has a couple lines and two solos in two different chorus numbers. Rehearsals are fun, and surprisingly she doesn't hate the girl who plays lead. And even more surprisingly they don't hate her either. They don't think she talks too much, and they don't think that's she annoying, and they definitely don't slushy her.

It's like they're her friends. They accept her, and it's kind of a foreign feeling.

She's in the Seven-Eleven with Puck one night, trying to convince him to get bread or peanut butter or carrots, or really anything that doesn't have a cream filling (he keeps claiming they don't have enough money which is ridiculous because the peanut butter is 14 cents less than the Twinkies), when she sees a familiar mass curls in the other isle.

Rachel pauses for a second, wondering if her costar wants to avoid being seen with her in public. She realizes with a shock that this isn't Lima; she's not embarrassing. She grabs Puck's arm and walks over to the next isle. "Hey," she says (still a little worried he'll be embarrassed to talk to her).

Gideon smiles and hugs her. "Hey, Caroline!" He looks genuinely happy to see her.

She smiles back and then glances at Puck beside her who's frowning. "Uh," she says awkwardly. She's never had to introduce people before (she's never had anyone to introduce), "Gideon this is my roommate John. John, this is my costar Gideon. Gideon's the male lead. You should hear him sing. It's amazing." Gideon blushes, but Puck still frowning. She assumes it's just one of those 'I'm a badass' things that he likes to do.

They shake hands (Puck looks like he's trying to crush Gideon's hand), and the three of them stand there awkwardly for about five minutes before Gideon says he has to go. Puck and Rachel check out and begin walking back to the apartment.

She glances at him out of the corner of her eye and says, "Look Noa-John, I realize that it's male instinct to not show weakness or to prove that your stronger or whatever when you first meet someone, but that was just plain rude!"

Puck runs his hand through his hair and sighs, "What do you see in that guy? He's not good enough for you."

Rachel stops walking and stares at him. And then she bursts out laughing, not like cute girly giggles but more like derange serial killer snorts. She's barely laughed since Lima. She's shaking and can barely breathe. Puck just stares at her like she's lost her mind. After a full minute, she finally calms down (a little bit). "Puck," she breathes, forgetting to call him John, "Gideon's gay."

She starts laughing again, and Puck just says quietly, "Oh."

-----

They've been in New York for a month and a half. It's after rehearsal one day when Rachel lets her curiosity get the best of her. She doesn't tell Puck, but once her director dismisses them she walks straight to the New York Public Library. When she gets there she walks over to one of the computers and sits down. She opens up Google and stares at the screen before finally typing in: Rachel Berry Lima Ohio. She presses search.

The entire first page is dedicated to articles about the two Ohio teens disappearing in the middle of the night. There's a missing person report too. She clicks on the first article. It takes all her willpower not to cry. There's a picture of her from Sectionals (Noah's is his football picture). She skims through the article

She stops when she gets to quotes from some of the Glee kids. _Worried classmate and former girlfriend of Noah Puckerman, Santana Lopez say, "I just really hope both of them are okay. I miss Noah so much." _Figures she'd use their disappearance for her fifteen minutes of fame. Whore. _Other members of McKinley High's New Directions aren't so concerned. "I doubt they'll be gone for long. Rachel's kind of a diva," says Kurt Hummel, 16. _Her eyes filled with tears. Miles away and Kurt still managed to make her feel bad about herself. She wonders if he even remembers that night.

She goes back to the search results and clicks on a different article. She scans it, and two words immediately stand out to her. Finn Hudson. She gasps quietly. _Good friend of both students, Finn Hudson says that he misses them both and wishes they would come home. _She smiles to herself. She misses Finn.

She quietly exes out of the window and deletes the history. She doesn't mention it to Puck.

-----

It's a week before opening night, and Rachel's driving him crazy. She's all over the place, practically buzzing. She nervous and excited. He's excited for her, but if she doesn't shut up he will not hesitate to strangle her.

He finally gets her to sit down (with much effort), and they talk. He's never felt so comfortable with someone before. It's like he can tell her anything, and she won't judge him. Sometimes he wonders if he could love her, but their friendship to perfect to even consider fucking up. He's telling her a story about his day at work, "So then Missy trips and spills soup all down this guys shirt. He's threatening to sue."

She nods, but Puck can tell she's hardly paying attention. She rests her head on his shoulder. "Noah," she murmurs softly, "I'm nervous."

She's so different than how the rest of the world views her in these moments. She's quiet, vulnerable, and scared. He strokes her hair absentmindedly. "You're going to be amazing; you are amazing," he tells her. He fully believes it too. Rachel Berry (or "Caroline Hitler") was the most amazing girl he's ever known because she's strong and talented and beautiful.

They sit there until the sun rises above the city that never sleeps.

-----

The opening of her play is absolutely perfect. The leads were flawless, the music was beautiful, and her brief solos went brilliantly. She meets Puck after the show, high on pure delight. He's waiting for outside with a bouquet of cheap looking roses in his hand. Her face lights up when she sees him. "You got me flowers?"

He smirks, "Actually, I stole them from the Seven-Eleven." She grins (not doubting his story at all), too happy to scold him. He hugs her and whispers in her ear, "You were amazing. Seriously, you're eight lines were the highlight of the show." She laughs.

She takes him to the cast party and introduces him to everyone in the cast. Puck's much nicer to Gideon once she introduces him to Gideon's boyfriend. He spends the whole night marveling at her in her element.

He doesn't even notice the blonde understudy that throws herself at him.


End file.
